


if only we had more time- maybe i could have made this all right

by too_many_umbrellas



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: ALLISON AND LUTHER ARE JUST BEST FRIENDS IN THIS FIC CAUSE I SAY SO, Based on a Tumblr Post, Character Death, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, NO SHIPPING CAUSE WE DO NOT SUPPORT INCEST IN THIS HOUSEHOLD, No Incest, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Number Five | The Boy-centric, i love that tag DKANDJS, idk how to tag, like absolute tons of it, like absolutely none, my brain just said “let them suffer” and who am i to argue, my tumblr post actually, no beta we die like ben, this author has no idea how to name fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:06:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26639290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/too_many_umbrellas/pseuds/too_many_umbrellas
Summary: The timeline has been changed, and technically, they shouldn’t exist.The universe decides to correct the mistake that is the Umbrella Academy, and the Hargreeves are unable to stop it.based on this tumblr post:https://too-many-umbrellas.tumblr.com/post/628650826377904128/wouldnt-it-be-funny-if-s3-isnt-the-umbrella
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy) & Everyone
Comments: 16
Kudos: 96





	if only we had more time- maybe i could have made this all right

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys!! this is my first fic on here, so take it easy on me lmao. constructive criticism is welcome (but please don’t be mean, i will cry and that is a threat DKSNDJSN)  
> if you wanna yell about the umbrella academy with me, feel free to check out my tumblr, @too-many-umbrellas!!  
> i hope you enjoy :)

_ “Dad? Who the hell are these guys?”_

Five had really thought things were finally going his way when he and his family managed to stop the 1963 Apocalypse. Sure, he had watched his family die and had almost died himself, but he was over it. (No, he was not.) He was fine. (He most certainly wasn’t.) 

Of course, he should have known better. 

He and his siblings were immediately kicked out of the not-Umbrella Academy, left to fend for themselves. Having nowhere else to go, they gathered all of the money they had on themselves and collected enough to rent a motel room for a while, with the help of a small rumor.

“So, what’s our next move?” Luther asked. They were all sitting in the dingy room they had been assigned, not really knowing what to say. The room had been quiet before he spoke, each Hargreeves stuck in their own heads, but now they all turned their heads to Five. The boy (man?) in question was staring down at the frayed end of his blazer sleeve, eyebrows creased in thought. 

“Five?” Someone said, and just like that he was thrown out of his trance. 

“What?” He asked, mild annoyance tinging his voice. 

“Luther asked what we were gonna do next.” Allison prompted. 

“And why are you all looking at me?” 

That left them silent for a moment. Why were they looking at him? Luther was their Number One, Vanya was the most powerful, Allison was arguably the best with people, so why did they default to Five for an explanation? 

“Because,” Luther answered, “you’re always the one with the answers and the plans.” 

“Well maybe I can’t always be that person!” Five burst out, before immediately looking back down at his sleeve to avoid the startled looks on his sibling’s faces. “Maybe,” he said again, softer, “I don’t even know where to start.” 

Allison and Klaus shared a glance. Luther looked at the floor, and Diego stared openly at Five. But it was Vanya who spoke. 

“It’s okay, Five.” she said, her voice infinitely patient and forgiving and everything Five needed to hear in that moment. “We can work together. You can rely on us.” 

And so it was settled. 

The next day, Five came to a terrifying realization. 

“Guys?” Five pairs of eyes looked up at him, thinly veiled concern in each. The fear that shone in his voice and on his face was a rare sight. Five tended to keep everything behind a tightly locked door, and the fact that it had slipped open was not a comforting idea. 

“Yeah?” Allison responded. 

“I don’t-“ Five’s voice cracked, and it made them all the more nervous. A deep breath. “We’re going to die.” 

The boy dropped into the chair behind him, looking as though all the weight of the world was laying on his small shoulders. None of his siblings spoke, and he suspected they had nothing they could say. How were you supposed to respond when you were told you were going to die? 

“Well,” Five corrected himself, deciding to focus on the cynical description instead of the terror welling up inside of him. “it’s not dying, not really. It’s more like just suddenly ceasing to exist. As a result of the” -a pause- “ _ timeline modifications _ we made in the 60’s, we technically don’t exist anymore. So the universe is going to correct the error the only way it can. It’s going to erase our being, so time can continue to run smoothly.” 

“How long do we have?” Vanya asked, her voice higher than normal. 

“No more than a week.” 

“And what are we going to do about it?” 

Five let out the breath he had been holding, before putting his hand to the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. 

“I don’t know.” 

Luther was the first to disappear. 

Him and Diego had been out at the nearby gas station, getting the group some food to last them till the end of the week. Diego had turned to ask Luther his opinion on something that he couldn’t recall. Though, it didn’t really matter anymore, did it? 

Diego watched as his brother, his Number One, his friend, just  _ dissolved _ . No fancy lights, no loud noises, no last words, just a fearful look, and then it was over. 

Diego kept staring at the spot Luther had been occupying long after the last blue particles he had become had disappeared. Diego didn’t understand why he felt so hollow. 

When he returned, empty handed and alone, with tear tracks glistening on his cheeks, nobody felt the need to ask. They already knew. 

Allison turned and walked to the bathroom, swiftly locking the door behind her, though her quiet sobs still echoed through the small motel room for them all to hear. 

Klaus pulled Vanya to his side, and grabbed Diego, latching onto them and not letting go as they curled up on the ratty comforter together. Ironically, it offered them little comfort. 

Five just kept his face carefully blank and turned back to his equations, though if a few splashes of water appeared on the page, no one mentioned it. 

He had work to do. 

Next, it was Vanya. 

Five wasn’t surprised. She was the smallest, and Five had assumed that would came into play in figuring out their order of disappearance. It didn’t explain why Luther had disappeared first, though. Honestly, Five didn’t really want to get into it. He had to stay focused on his equations, and dwelling on the uncertain question of ‘Who’s next?’ wouldn’t help. 

It didn’t make it hurt any less. 

Five couldn’t stop thinking about Vanya, the lonely girl that had grown into a powerful woman who had managed to remain his best friend for the last 58 years- thinking about their peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches, about how they had held mini book club meetings together with whichever sibling felt like joining that particular week, about how he could just sit and listen to her play her violin for hours on end, and would do so willingly. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about the sister he had lost. 

The day after Vanya’s disappearance (not death, never death. Five would figure out how to fix this. He  _ would _ .) Five snuck into the Sparrow Academy to check some books for his equations. He wasn’t going to steal them and raise Reginald’s suspicions, just spend a few hours reading the parts he needed. 

He woke up at 11 pm that night, and crept through the room, hoping not to wake any of his siblings on his little trip. Before he left the room, however, he heard a quiet whisper, and paused to listen better. 

“I heard a rumor this all stopped. I heard a rumor you came back.  _ I heard a rumor that everything is going to be okay. _ ” Allison was quietly sobbing even as she said the words. Not loud enough to bother any of his siblings, barely loud enough for him to hear, but it broke his heart all the same. 

Pushing the thought to the side, refusing to get hung up on emotions, he jumped out of the room and made his way down the street. Once he reached the mansion and blinked into the library, he pulled a flashlight out of the bag on his shoulder, and settled down to read the books he had gathered. 

He hadn’t expected anyone to come in, much less someone he recognized. 

When Ben (not his Ben, not his Ben,  _ not his Ben _ ) entered, a flashlight in hand, Five found himself jumping out of the chair and dropping the books on the table next to him. 

Ben thought he looked like a startled cat. 

“What are you doing?” he asked the boy standing in front of him. 

“Reading.” was his response, said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

“Oh.” Ben didn’t know what to say. Should he kick him out? Tell his father? Let him continue whatever he was reading? 

He was saved the decision when the boy disappeared in a flash of blue. 

The books he had been reading were still on the table, but Ben decided he’d leave them. He’d only wanted to grab his favorite book to read a bit of (A Dance with Dragons, it was called) before he went to sleep. He’d always found the extreme fantasy easy to lose himself in. Reading about fictional people’s problems was easier than dwelling upon his own. 

Diego and Allison disappeared together. Five hadn’t been there when it happened, but Klaus had. The man had been a wreck when Five had returned to the motel after a quick trip to the ice machine. Eyeliner and mascara were smudged around his eyes, accompanying the dark circles they had all developed after the stressful, emotionally-taxing week. 

Five did his best to console his brother ( _your last remaining sibling_ , his mind whispered, and he pushed the thought away) though he himself was grieving as well. Klaus was conscious of this fact, and didn’t let Five go back to his equations without taking a break first. 

Five tried to hold on to the tiny bit of hope he had left, though it was too small, and squirmed right out of his metaphorical fist. His equations, all of the time he spent figuring out how to stop this, was beginning to feel as if it was for nothing. Klaus retreated farther and farther into himself with every passing minute, and everything seemed hopeless. 

Five remembered the day he had found his sibling’s bodies buried in the ash of the Apocalypse. He couldn’t help but to think he felt the same now as he had then- grieving and working and drowning in terror and anxiety and  guilt all at the same time. 

Five kept working on his equations. 

The moment Klaus dissolved, Five knew he would be gone soon as well. 

His working theory was that the fact that he and Klaus had time travelled more than the others meant their bodies were better accustomed to the feeling of the universe fighting against them, so they had lasted the longest out of all of his siblings. Five especially, with his ability to manipulate space-time. Usually the folds of reality welcomed him, but ever since he arrived in this fucked up timeline, each jump had been harder and harder. 

The universe was rejecting him. 

His powers and durability could only protect him for so long, and he could tell it wouldn’t last much longer. So, he did the last thing he could: 

He visited Reginald. 

When he opened the doors of the Academy, he was surprised to see Ben in the living room closest to the entrance. No one else was there, so Five decided he had best visit the old man’s office. 

Except, before he could take another step past the living room, he felt a strange tug, as if his life force was a string and someone had just found the end and started unraveling. Ben looked up from his book just in time to see the little umbrella boy standing in the doorway, his face a terrible picture of pain and regret. 

Just as he started dissolving into blue dust, a single tear rolled down his cheek. 

“I’m sorry.” he whispered, to the siblings he had lost.  _ I’m sorry for failing you. I’m sorry for not solving the equations in time.  _

_ I’m sorry for not being good enough to save you again.  _

Just like that, he was gone. 

And Ben was all alone, once again, in the living room. 

** EPILOGUE **

Ben doesn’t know why he keeps thinking about those umbrella guys. He didn’t even know them (but they knew him, and try as he might, he just cannot forget their looks of utter disbelief when they first saw him). Maybe, he thinks, it’s some kind of misplaced guilt. He knew they disappeared into the timeline, he watched one of them dissolve with his own eyes. Maybe he regrets just letting them die without lending a hand to help? Who knows. Certainly not him. Except their faces just wouldn’t leave him alone. 

Then, one night, he has a dream that he lived in a house like his own, and had a father much like his own, except, in his dream, his siblings were different. And each of them wore a jacket with an umbrella instead of a sparrow. 

In the morning he wondered if that was just a dream, or if the universe was trying to remind him of something. 

Either way, he knew that he couldn’t just leave the siblings (his siblings?) abandoned in the time stream. 

So he grabbed a book one of them had left on the table ( _Five_ , his mind whispered, and he shoved the flicker of recognition away), and started his research. 


End file.
